Compressors are machines that increase the pressure of a gas, vapor or mixtures of gases and vapors. The pressure of the fluid is increased by reducing the fluid's specific volume during passage of the fluid through the compressor. A cone shaped cylinder with fan blades or an impeller is an integral part in many compressors since it helps with air intake and compression fluid, as well as directing the flow through the compressor. Depending on the application, impellers may be made of many different materials such as metals or polymers and are typically fabricated by either casting, molding or machining the material.
The following U.S. patents disclose rotated members with woven fibers: U.S. Pat. No. 3,632,460 entitled “Epicyclic Weaving of Fiber Discs” which issued to Palfreyman et al. on Jan. 4, 1972; U.S. Pat. No. 3,718,952, with the same title, which issued to Palfreyman et al. on Mar. 6, 1973; U.S. Pat. No. 4,460,531, entitled “Composite Fiber Reinforced Propeller,” which issued to Harris et al. on Jul. 17, 1984; U.S. Pat. No. 4,255,087, entitled “Member Formed of Fiber-Reinforced Plastic Material, such as a Rotor Blade,” which issued to Wackerle et al. on Mar. 10, 1981; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,464,325, entitled “Turbo-Compressor Impeller for Coolant,” which issued to Albring et al. on Nov. 7, 1995. All of these patents are incorporated by reference herein. These prior devices, however, are believed to be prohibitively expensive to produce in volume and do not benefit from inclusion of multifunctional component integration. Furthermore, these prior constructions employ an expensive metal coating, polymeric over-molding or a composite material, applied after fiber placement, which constitutes a greater portion of the part as compared to the fiber portion and is complicated to produce. What is needed is an impeller that is fabricated by a less expensive method other than casting or molding.